


Too Late

by Quaxo



Series: Seven Years Too Late [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 05:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quaxo/pseuds/Quaxo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"C'mon, it's just a little bit of 'fondue'... to use your own words."</p><p>Steve is pulled from the ice 7 years after he went down.  The world still moved on without him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Late

"C'mon, just a little bit of 'fondue'... to use your own words," Howard's words are slurred, and he can smell the hint of expensive whiskey on Howard's breath.

It is tempting -- and he curses again when he realizes there's no way for him to get intoxicated any more, not since the serum. If he were drunk then it'd be excusable; if he were drunk then he could forget that this is the wrong place for them to be having this conversation and that Howard's /wife/ was just across the room. 

"We can't," He says with firmness he doesn't feel. There isn't anyone that knows him before the serum, not since Peggy was injured in that POW camp and can barely feed herself now, and doesn't even recognize him. 

"Why," Howard demands, hand fisting in Steve's jacket, expression determined. There's never been anything that Howard has been denied before, Steve realizes -- if Howard's money couldn't buy it, then his ingenuity could make it happen. 

"You have a wife and a son."

"Them -- Steve, I don't know why you're fixed on that. Maria, Maria's a good girl, she /understands/ that a man has needs... needs fondue every once and awhile."

He shook hands with her, saw the knowledge in her eyes -- she knew about Howard and him. If Howard thought that his wife would sit idly by while they resumed their relationship -- well, he knew less about women than Steve ever did. He can see the core of iron beneath her velvet exterior -- knows that she will allow no interlopers in her marriage, no matter how unhappy they both apparently are, no matter whom exactly her husband is sleeping with.

Even if there was negotiating with Maria, there was still Tony to consider. The kid had followed Steve around like a particularly noisy shadow the first day he had spent at the Stark residence once he'd gotten out of the government lab. Tony had peppered him nonstop with questions about his adventures -- even some incidents that were a little unsavory, in Steve's opinion, for a 5-year-old's ears -- and 'Mr. Rogers what was like underneath the ice all that time?', 'Were you cold?', 'Were you lonely with no one to talk to?'...

The butler (Jarvis, he thought his name was) had eventually come, apologizing for 'Master Tony' bothering him, and had been dragging the reluctant boy away when Steve had told him the boy could stay, realizing that boy's company was better than being alone with his own thoughts or the wintery stares of Maria Stark. 

The kid was bright for his age, and once Steve had managed to work his way through Tony's extensive list of questions Tony had been happy to build toy machines with his Erector set at Steve's feet while Steve caught up on seven years of military briefings -- at least when 'Uncle' Steve wasn't being talked into assisting Tony in construction (which was often). It was nice to be around undemanding company, who wanted Steve around, instead of Captain America, even if said company only came up to his hip and was missing a front tooth.

If he did this with Howard, no matter how much he wanted to Tony would eventually be hurt by it and that was entirely unacceptable. Howard, Maria, and he were all adults, could all make decisions about their involvement but Tony was a child and would only end up dragged into the middle of everything without ever getting say. He wouldn’t be a part of making him – or any child – miserable without just cause.

"If it weren't for me, you'd still be in that damn ice," Howard mutters uncharitably, and Steve hides a wince.

His friend is sick, he reminds himself, and maybe if they'd have pulled him from the ice sooner he could've helped prevent Howard's battle with the drink -- prevented Peggy from being captured, being nearly blown up, having her brains turned to mush --

Except if they had then Tony Stark probably wouldn't exist, and that would've been a damn shame too. 

"You were too late. You've got a kid who adores you, Howard, why don't you focus on your family now."

The glare Howard gives him is ugly as he collects Maria and calls for the car to be brought up.

It isn't until 'too late' that Steve realizes that Howard shouldn't have been driving.


End file.
